Members

PI

Ryan Folk

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5333-9273

I am an assistant professor at the Department of Biological Sciences at Mississippi State University. I am also the curator of the herbarium MISSA.

I work on plant biodiversity from evolutionary and ecological perspectives and have a special interest in bioinformatics approaches that use herbarium specimens and other biocollections data. Hobbies! Illustrations! Bionomia profile. Draft of lab cookbook.

My full CV may be found here.

Graduate Students

Nicholas Engle-Wrye

Nick is interested in plant systematics, functional biogeography, and phenomics.

For his PhD, he is investigating the role of conserved floral scent as a driver of hybridization in Heuchera and species delimitation of the Heuchera americana complex using integrative taxonomic approaches.

Dexcem Pantinople

Dexcem received his BSc in Biology at the University of the Philippines in 2017 and joined the lab as a Biological Sciences Ph.D. student in Spring 2022.

He is working on understanding the eco-evolutionary forces that drive biogeographical patterns of diversity in the disjunct Heuchera parviflora group. Dexcem is especially interested in studying the biogeography and diversification of plants in terrestrial island-like systems. He enjoys singing to Mariah Carey and Elton John in his spare time.

Pranoti Giram

Pranoti joined us in Fall 2024 as a PhD student after finishing her Masters at Reva University in India. She is one of the two students who will work on plant-microbe interactions in the nitrogen-fixing symbiosis through the IntBIO project.

Sushil Dahal

Sushil started working with us in 2021 as an undergraduate REU researcher, and after graduating from MSU started as a Biological Sciences PhD student in Fall 2021.

He currently focusing on species delimitation and biogeographic history in Symphyotrichum.

John Kees

John just joined us in Fall 2024 as a PhD student after and finishing a Bachelors from UNC Chapel Hill. He is interested in plant systematics and diversity in the Southeast!

Shamim Ahmed

Shamim joined us in Fall 2024 as a PhD student after finishing his Masters at Southern Illinois University. He is one of the two students who will work on plant-microbe interactions in the nitrogen-fixing symbiosis through the IntBIO project. If you ever notice someone staring at the skyline with his earbuds listening to John Denver or Elvis Presley, that guy is Shamim! You may say he is a dreamer; you may join him if you want.

Undergraduate Students

Tajinder Singh

Hawinet Adugna

TJ has been working with us since Fall 2021 on our REU and BRIDGES programs. He has worked on a variety of projects including microbial DNA extraction and amplicon sequencing, plant DNA extraction, and herbarium digitization. He is running his own projects as well studying the effects of novel fertilizer products that can be derived from nutrient runoff.

Gabriel McLaughlin

Gabe joined the lab in Spring 2024 and is interested in applications of plant diversity and function and in the herbarium.

Marley Hurt

Marley started working with us in the lab and herbarium Fall of 2024.

Katherine Quinn

Katherine started working with us in the lab Fall of 2024 as part of our IntBIO project.

Hawinet joined in Spring 2024 as one of our first BRIDGES students! She has been working on microbiome studies of insects and plants.

Chase Fry

Chase started working with us over the summer of 2024. She has lots of experience working in both the lab and the herbarium, particularly investigating nodule microbiomes.

Essence Baker

Essence just began Spring 2025 as part of our BRIDGES program.

Natalie Triplett

Natalie just began Spring 2025 as part of our BRIDGES program.

This could also be you! We have many opportunities in the lab for motivated undergraduates who need research experience in the life sciences, including REU positions funded by the National Science Foundation!

Alumni—Postdoctoral

Carolina Siniscalchi

Carol came to us from a postdoctoral position at the Mandel lab at the University of Memphis, having previously done undergrad, masters, and PhD degrees at the Universidade de São Paulo. She worked with us to understand the origins and ecology of nitrogen-fixing symbioses with bioinformatics approaches. She is an expert in composite and legume systematics as well as plant phylogenomics. She has moved on to a tenure-track Data Science position at Mississippi State's libraries! For more information see her scholar page, professional profile, and personal website.

Alumni—Undergraduate

Sofia Nail

Sofia worked with us late Spring 2021 to Spring 2023 and learned molecular techniques as part of our REU program as well as plant morphometrics. She is off to graduate school at the University of Texas El Paso.

Reagan Conner

Reagan was one of our longest-term students, working with us from the end of summer 2020 to the same of 2022. She mainly worked on microbiome projects to understand plant endophyte diversity as part of our REU program. She is off to graduate school at the University of Arizona.

Tyrikus Hayes

Tyrikus worked with us Spring to Summer of 2022. He worked on a variety of molecular projects in the lab. He is off to med school at the University of Mississippi.

Briana Johnston

Briana started in late 2020 as an REU student and focused on herbarium and wetlab methods through to summer 2021. She is off to graduate school at the University of Arkansas.

Paige Marrota

Paige worked with us in the winter and spring of 2021 as an REU student, focusing mainly on DNA techniques and has moved on to a medical lab tech job.

Matt Mattox

Matt worked in the lab with us from Fall 2019 to Fall 2020 as an REU student and helped us build tons of libraries and extract DNA. He's an expert at the magnet! He has finished his undergraduate degree and has moved on to a job at Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Stephanie Dauber

Stephanie worked in the lab and herbarium from Fall 2019 to Fall 2022 on a number of projects in the lab related to our REU program, including phylogenomics, microbiome work, and trait scoring on herbarium specimens. She is also one of our best plant mounters and repairers! She has moved on to a position at Los Alamos National Laboratories.

Sydney Beachler

Sydney worked in the herbarium from Fall 2021 to Summer 2022 on restoring specimens and mounting.

Zoe Fowler

Zoe worked in the lab at the over summer 2021 to learn molecular techniques in our REU program. She is off to graduate school at Georgia Tech (on a GRFP!!).

Kelli Broussard

Kelli joined the lab and herbarium over summer 2020 through summer 2021 as an REU student. She focused on a new phenology project we have going and our microbiome projects. She is off to med school at LSU.

Peyton Dunn

Peyton worked with us from Spring 2020 to Spring 2021 as an REU student. He mostly worked on a number of remote projects focused on scoring herbarium sheets for color and phenology scoring. He has moved on to a co-op experience as he completes his undergraduate degree.

Visitors

João P. Fujita

Rafael F. Barduzzi

João is a visitor from Leo Borges' lab in Brazil, and is working on a mix of computational and wetlab projects on Mimosa.

Rafa was a visitor from Leo Borges' lab in Brazil who worked with us in Summer 2025 on phylogenomics of Mimosa.

Thiago Cobra e Monteiro

Leonardo M. Borges

Thiago visited us in Summer of 2024 to do phylogenomics in the Adesmia group. He had some of our nastiest DNA samples but did a great job!

Leo has worked with us since Fall 2021 on a variety of projects, but mostly Mimosa. He came to visit in Summer 2024 to sequence lots of Mimosa libraries!

Natalia Tkach

Natalia visited us in Summer of 2024 to do a variety of things, including lab and field work, focused on SaxifragaceaWe miss her borscht!

Tanisha Williams

Tanisha visited us in 2022 to do a sequencing project in the endangered Heuchera alba group. After trials and tribulations we are just now finishing this work, which will shake up conservation designations in these very specialized plants.

Photo: Boykinia aconitifolia